Falling in love the first time is easy, effortless. It happens without you even realizing it. Your heart is stolen because you never thought you’d lose it. You took no measures to protect it. Falling in love a second time is improbable, but not impossible. It happens when you’re ready – when you’ve glued back together the precarious pieces of your heart and offered it up to someone else, cautiously but surely.

Falling in love a third time is a true hero’s journey because you must fight for it; even though you’re exhausted, you’re afraid, and you’re guarded. Even though it’s an uphill battle and you’re the last surviving member of your battalion. You carry on, a lone soldier, with the burning white flag you’ve casted off behind you. You will be tempted. You will be tested.

A reminder that you deserve to be loved today – by others, by yourself – in spite of your flaws, for your flaws. For that snort at the end of your laugh. For that one time you fell in the fountain at the Louvre. For the way your eyes crinkle when you smile. For that one stray hair that just won’t stay. For all the callouses on your hands. For the way you have to squeeze into your jeans. For the fact that you have two left feet. For the strength of being in your own skin. For your weakest moments, for your strongest ones. Dear World, this is my love letter to you.